It got me to thinking... how could one go about actually testing this theory? I mean digital sound is digital sound - but where it turns analog, and especially any analog electronics between there and the output jacks can certainly have a sonic character, even if normally a subtle one.

So how could one best go about testing this? I mean i'm aware that an A-B-X box would be required, but is there some kind of guide for what would be involved to extract the DAC board/electronics and hook it up as say a general purpose USB driven DAC or something off a PC, so you could more easily play and control all the test tones going through it, at least for listening tests... I suppose you could use CDR's too, but if it could be just removed and turned into an external DAC i've got a pile of old PS1's with broken disc units in the garage I might turn into the finest dedicated converters for 7.1 output ever heard by the above logic. :-P

Re: "the sound of DAC's..." (specifically sony ps1)

That is really dumb, but if you want to see what a PS1 can do, download RMAA, burn a test CD, and record the DACs output using a reasonable sound card with at least 17 bit line in. Then prepare to be underwhelmed